Grange swimmer takes on English Channel for 40th birthday

Amy Favieres, a mum of two from Grange, took on her biggest challenge yet, swimming the English Channel just days before her 40th birthday.

Mrs Favieres completed the gruelling swim on June 29, tackling jellyfish stings and illness to make the French coast in 16 hours and five minutes.

Mrs Favieres said: “In a lot of sports people compete to have the fastest time but longer times are a badge of honour for people like me. I’m not an elite athlete, I’m an ordinary mum and I’m so proud of what I achieved.

“I only started to swim in 2021 when I joined the Save Grange Lido swimming club. I was a complete novice and my technique was awful. I was inspired by a woman there who was swimming the length of Ullswater – I just thought, ‘how is that even possible?'"

Taking inspiration from the swimmers in the group, Mrs Favieres has gone on to swim the ChillSwim Triple Crown – swimming Coniston, Windermere and Ullswater end to end – and completed a relay Channel swim with three other members of the group, raising £8,225 for the restoration of Grange’s historic lido.

(Image: Amy Favieres) Amy Favieres swam the Channel as part of a relay with three other members of Save Grange Lido swimming club in 2023.“As we finished the relay, the boat pilot mentioned that there was one space available for a solo Channel swim the following year,” she said. “I had to take it, the waiting list can be about three years for a chance like that.”

After months of training and effort, Mrs Favieres first solo attempt did not go to plan.

“I set off at 10pm knowing I had the whole night stretched ahead of me, and the conditions were awful,” she said. “I was terrified and I just couldn’t calm myself down.

“It was devastating, after all the training and the hype, and time away from my children, to have it all crash down after two and a half hours.”

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Not to be defeated, Mrs Favieres secured another slot for this year with weather conditions lining up to take on her second attempt just days before her 40th birthday.

Despite getting sick after two hours, and suffering a nasty jellyfish sting to the chest, Mrs Favieres made it to Cap Gris-Nez, 21 miles from her start point at Samphire Hoe outside Dover.

She said: “It was the best birthday present ever. I wanted a challenge and an adventure for me, to be out of the daily routine, and to show my kids that anything is possible with hard work.”